By now you’ve probably heard about the newly published study, “Rapid behavioral maturation accelerates failure of stressed honey bee colonies¹.” In my opinion, this is the first paper suggesting a possible cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) that actually makes sense. The scientists doing the research used transmitters to learn about the behavior of bee […] Read more
Here’s a perfect photo of a perfect honey bee working white sweet clover. Thank you, Bill!
Actually, the beehive stays in one place. I’d love to see a Langstroth flitting among the flowers, but so far no luck. The bees themselves, however, start to forage almost immediately after they are installed in the hive. If it is warm and dry enough to fly, some bees will begin orienting themselves by flying […] Read more
The protein vitellogenin has long been known to play an important role in colony health. It is known to regulate queen bee and forager life span, and it affects social behavior, immunity, and stress response. Previous research has shown that worker bees with suppressed vitellogenin levels forage earlier, prefer foraging for nectar, and live shorter […] Read more
Precocious foraging describes a situation where “underage” bees are required to take up foraging duty. Precocious foraging may result from any situation that causes a large percentage of the field force to die, including pesticide kills, disease, predation, or shortened lifespans due to chemical exposure. When large number of nurse bees are re-assigned to the […] Read more
You hear it all the time, so it must be true. Sometimes the person asks in a half-joking but tentative way, as if it might be true but they hope it’s not. Others are totally convinced it is true and want verification. And some are just curious because it’s something they heard. This myth is […] Read more